The cost of a “project” reset and replanning

#AgileDataWoW

For those in my Network that don’t live in NZ, we had an election late last year and a change of government. As is typical with that level of change a number of Government “projects” have been cancelled.

While its disappointing to see waste, I personally don’t beleive in the theory of “sunk costs”.

We often see the theory of sunk costs appear in a large data project / porgaramme.

The project isn’t deliverying what is expected by the stakeholders and so there is a project “reset”, with some “replanning” and “phase 2” of the project appears.

Often the first cost estimates are revised upwards during the project resets, while at the same time the list of features and benefits which were promised to be delivered are constantly reduced.

Ralph Hughes describes it in his 2008 Agile Data Warehousing book as the “Disappointment Cycle”.

This iteration of the diagram from Ralphs book tracks the value vs cost as the data project constantly undergoes resets and replanning.

So what do we do about this.

The key is to start the work of using agile and product patterns and not treat it as a “project”.

If we do small pieces of data work often, if we then validate that work with our users and our stakeholders, we can constantly course correct. We can change what we are doing so we are constantly resetting and replanning rephasing iteratively not in a big bang.

One of the NZ projects that got shitcanned cost over $200 Million NZ pesos (Dollars).

For that the project delivered a bunch of documents and standards. The Stakeholders didnt get any of that value, as for some reason its all been hidden behind an “ask wall” (say those. words fast 3 times)

Don’t be that project. Documentation is an output not an outcome.